Business

Corporate America Hates Me

Posted on: November 13th, 2012 by ecthompsonmd

 

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I'm sure that the hatred that I have for corporate America is mutual. I have plenty of recent evidence.

Just a couple days ago, I was called by Bank of America. They wanted to know when I was going to pay the $150 that I owe them. I got this call on Monday – Veterans Day. I happily told the Bank of America employee that I'd already paid the money that I owed plus an extra $50 at the branch on the previous Friday. Then he read a standard statement which said something about how I would continue to get calls from Bank of America until they had received the funds. Wait a minute! What do you mean? I've already paid you. I didn't put the money in the mail. I didn't pay you via carrier pigeon. I went to the branch and paid you on the spot. The money is in your bank. Why should I get any more calls? Well, he explained, it was not in our system. I asked, logically, why should I be penalized with more calls because your system is slow? Needless to say there was not a satisfactory answer to my question.

Last Friday, after working a 15-hour day, I got a lovely call from Sirius XM satellite radio. I owed them $260. What ensued was a bunch of confusion that can only be laid down by corporate America. It turns out that I have three separate accounts with Sirius XM. I stated that I would like to combine all three accounts into one simple account. In order to get this done there was some $20 fee. I really had no idea why they were charging me the $20 in addition to the $260 fee to renew my contract. The whole process wasted 45 minutes of my life. On Saturday, Sirius XM called again. What? Plenty of apologies and I thought we were done with the saga. Yesterday, I got an automated call from Sirius XM. My account would be terminated in 24-48 hours because of nonpayment. I needed to call immediately. Dammit! This was going to be ugly. So I called. I owed nine dollars. For what? I spent 45 minutes on the phone with you guys just the other day. How can I owe you nine dollars now? I never got a satisfactory answer. I asked to speak to a supervisor. After being on hold for more than five minutes, I was told they were going to waive the nine dollars. How magnanimous. I'd wasted over an hour of my life on something that should have taken five minutes. This is why I can't stand corporate America.

So, let me follow up and tell you where we are with my 51-inch Samsung TV. My beautiful TV has been sitting on my floor, dead, for more than 10 weeks. Samsung has decided to replace the TV. The exchange program does not let you upgrade to another TV. It does not let you pay the difference. Basically, you accept their deal or not. I get a new TV with a 90-day warranty, not the year warranty that I had before. I'd also bought an extended warranty on the TV, which I suspect is money that I flushed down the drain.

Don't you love corporate America? I know I do.

My Samsung TV update

Posted on: November 3rd, 2012 by ecthompsonmd

 

For those of you who don't know, my TV is broken. I wrote about it a little while back. Now, there was nothing that I did to break my TV. I simply watched it. It was on a surge protector. Fewer than 10 months into its life, it crapped out. I wasn't worried because I had double protection. I had the manufacturer's warranty and I bought an extended warranty from HH Gregg. Cool. I'm covered.

The problem is the enormous amount of patience necessary to get this thing done. Companies don't want to honor their promises or commitments. They want us to buy more stuff. If you give up and buy something new, big business wins. It has been over six weeks. I haven't given in yet.

I got the following e-mail from Samsung a couple of days ago -

Dear Mr. ERRINGTON THOMPSON
Transaction No. xxx

Thank you for being a valued Samsung customer. You were submitted for an exchange on 11/01/2012 for model: xxxx, serial number zzzz. Currently Samsung would like to provide you with an exchange offer of the xxxy $ 0.00 Based on the features and specifications of your original unit Samsung feels that this is the most comparable unit based on our inventory. If you would like to review the features and specifications for this model you can do so at http://www.samsung.com/us/.

Here's the good part - whom do you call to say okay? It wasn't clear from the e-mail. So, I replied to the e-mail and of course, I have gotten no response so far. I contacted their online chat and they were no help. So, the drama continues.

My Broken Samsung TV, how corporations force you to buy new (Update)

Posted on: October 9th, 2012 by ecthompsonmd 5 Comments

 

(If you have read all of this before, then skip to the last paragraph for the update.)

I will continue to complain about corporations until corporations fix their basic problem. Simply put – we don't count. We, American consumers, only count when we're buying new stuff. Otherwise, we are nothing. Corporations pretend to give service but they really don't. They waste our time so that we get frustrated and finally buy something new.

So, back in November, I bought this 51-inch Samsung TV. Nice picture. Good size. High definition. Two weeks ago, I sat down to watch some football and the TV turned itself off and on, then off and on again, and then the screen went blank. Nothing. "This isn't good," I thought.

I called HH Gregg. I called them because they were the company that I bought the TV from and I had also purchased an extended warranty. After negotiating through multiple different prompts, I get some "service center" who will be happy to send somebody out to look at my TV in five days. Five days? That really doesn't sound reasonable. Okay, I will wait for five days. Five days later, the serviceman comes out, looks at the TV and decides that the TV needs some new parts. Of course, he doesn't have the parts. So he's going to have to order the parts. We are told to call him back when the parts come in. He leaves. He does not give us his name. He does not give us a business card. We get nothing. Five days later, the parts arrive. Now, we get to the good part. Who do we call to let them know that the parts have come in?

I call HH Gregg. That was the company that I called before, so I foolishly thought that's the company I should call again. After going through multiple prompts, I get to a bewildered service person who puts me on hold several times and asks for a lot of information only to tell me that he's going to have to transfer me to someone who can help me with my problem. I get transferred back to the initial prompt at HH Gregg. Basically, I'm back to square one. I go through the various prompts once again and I get to another bewildered service person. I give him lots of information only to be placed on hold several more times and then I'm told I need to be transferred to Samsung. Somewhat frustrated, I agree to be transferred to Samsung. 20 minutes have passed.... Read More →

  • Errington C. Thompson, MD
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